Kali Terakhir Ku Lihat Wajah Mu

In the name of Allah, the Mercy-giving, the Merciful! 
  
Assalamu'alaikum and Good Day, 

Last Thursday 25 Sep 2008 was the day before my last day of work in PETRONAS prior to my retirement.  While driving home from work that evening, I heard this song over the car's radio/CD/MP3 player.

This song was popularised by Uji Rashid in the early 1970s.  The lyrics is as follows:

Kali Terakhir Ku Lihat Wajah Mu

Dalam dakapan senja
Kurenungi sinar matamu
Berat rasa melepaskan
Dikau pergi

Dingin hembusan bayu
Lemah longlai langkah kakimu
Lambaianmu kian jauh
Dari mata

( korus )
Malangnya…
Bencana menimpa
Kau telah pergi untuk selamanya
Tak kembali

Pada saat terakhir
Kumelihat paras wajahmu
Kau bisikkan hanya sayang
Kepadaku…

( ulang korus )

After working for PETRONAS for 29 years and 4 months, I have many fond memories of the people who, and place where, I spend most of my waking hours.   While there were some bad, sad or frustrating moments, I can mostly remember only the good,  happy and exhilarating moments.  

Thus, last Friday evening, as I stepped out of my office floor on Level 29, Tower 1, PETRONAS Twin Towers and, a little while later, as I stepped out of the building I can't help but looked back with a tinge of sadness.

I find this song, with minor modifications, very appropriate to describe my feeling at that time.  

Kali Terakhir Ku Lihat Wajah Mu
(with minor adaptation) 

Dalam dakapan senja
Kurenungi sinar matamu
Berat rasa meninggalkan
Dikau pergi

Dingin hembusan bayu
Lemah longlai langkah kakiku
Lambaianmu kian jauh
Dari mata

Pada saat terakhir
Kumelihat paras wajahmu
Ku bisikkan hanya sayang
Kepadamu...

My translation:

The Last Time I Saw You

In the embrace of twilight
I looked into your shiny eyes
And with heavy heart
I have to leave you behind

In the cool evening breeze
My footsteps became weaker
Your farewell waving and swaying 
Fading into the distance

At the very last moment
I looked back at you
I whispered
I have only love for you

WalLahu'alam

Preface / Muqaddimah

In the name of Allah, the Mercy-giving, the Merciful!

Assalamu'alaikum and Welcome,

I chose to name this blog Merungkai Senja to reflect the stage of my life.  I take Senja or twilight as the transition from day to night, from light to dark, from past to the future, from known to unknown.  

Life can be divided into three phases: the growing up phase, the working phase and the retirement (post-working) phase.  The growing up phase started when you were born into this world and the retirement phase will end when you die.  The duration of each of this phase is not the same, it varies from individual to individual.  

A person may have a short growing up period as he/she may have to start work early to support the family. On the other hand there could also be some people who remain in the growing up phase the whole of their life.

A person may have a short working phase and be able to retire early as the Almighty God may bless the person with abundant wealth and riches.

The retirement phase is always uncertain as we do not know how long we may live before God decide to take our life away.

I have just completed my working phase as my last day of work with my employer, PETRONAS, was last Friday 26 September 2008.  I am entering the retirement stage.  This is my transition, my Senja, my twilight time.  

I intend, InsyaAllah, to use Merungkai Senja to share my experience as I go through this transition.  I may touch on my work experience, I may touch on current events, I may touch on what the future holds for me.  I hope Merungkai Senja will, in some small ways, be beneficial to the readers.

I will try to do good works, to be fair, to be unbiased.  But my own human weaknesses may render many errors in the works I will produce. Up front here, I ask everyone who may be affected by the errors in my works to forgive me.

My capability, my knowledge and my experience have been shaped by many factors - my parents, teachers, family members, friends, mentors, coaches and superiors, the materials I read, the things I hear and the various shows I watched.  All these will influence whatever I may write in Merungkai Senja and, most likely, some part of what I may write may originally come from these sources.  Some may even call this plagiarism.  If anyone feel that what I write plagiarise some other works, again I seek your forgiveness and I hope you will give me permission to use the works.  I do not intend to gain anything materially from this blog.   

All the errors and weaknesses in Merungkai Senja are from me while all the good is from the blessings of Allah. If the readers have benefited from my works, I will consider it a great blessing and I pray to Allah for the best reward in the Hereafter.

Ya Allah Ya Rahman Ya Rahim
Berkatilah usaha-usahaku
Ampunilah segala kesilapanku
Berilah petunjuk kepada ku supaya dapat aku memperbaiki prestasi ku
Jadikanlah hari esokku lebih baik dari hari ini
Dan begitulah seterusnya pada hari-hari yang akan datang.

Amin, Ya Rabbul’alamin

WalLahualam

Allah Know Best

Wassalam and Best Regards.

    

Definition / Pentakrifan

In the name of Allah, the Mercy-giving, the Merciful!

Assalamu'alaikum and Welcome,

This site will mainly use Bahasa Malaysia (Malay) and English. 

Merungkai  is from the root word ungkai meaning unknot or untie

Senja means twilight

From Dewan Bahasa Edisi Baru Cetakan Kelima 1994:

rungkai; merungkaikan  menghuraikan (simpulan tali dll), membuka (bungkusan dll); -> ungkai

ungkai; mengungkai  1.  menghuraikan simpulan tali dll, mengorak, membuka (ikatan dll): tali yg memperhubungkan aku dgn engkau telah tersimpul mati, tidak dapat diungkai lagi;  2.  membuka atau menanggalkan (baju dll), membongkar (rumah), merombak;  3.  menganggap (menyatakan, menyebabkan) tidak berlaku atau sah, membatalkan (perjanjian dll), memansuhkan;  4.  mencari-cari sesuatu utk diselidiki, membongkar-bongkar utk menyelidiki (memeriksa dll), menggugat perkara yg sudah-sudah;  terungkai  telah (dapat) diungkai, terbongkar, terbuka, tertanggal, terurai: dia membetulkan kutangnya yang hampir ~ itu;  pengungkai;  ~ rantai guna-guna (jampi, mantera) utk melepaskan gari.

senja, = senjakala  waktu matahari hampir terbenam (lebih kurang pukul 7.00 petang), ketika hampir akan malam:  ~ hampir tiba, ayam dan itiknya kedengaran riuh rendah masuk ke reban;  berebut ~  Mn hari mulai malam;  ~ buta, = ~ raya  senja yg sudah agak larut (lebih kurang pukul 8.00 malam);  kesenjaan  sudah terlalu petang (hampir benar akan malam), kepetangan.

Wassalam and Best Regards